Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything other than random characters not in the anime/manga.
Warning: I don't know if the current rating will change or not, or what the pairs will be, where this story will go … or how long this will be, or how often I'll update. But have fun reading, and please review so I can improve. (: I don't have a beta, so any constructive reviews are much appreciated.
Chapter 1 – First Day
"Everyone, please get to your classes! The first bell has rung!" A new teacher pushed his scraggly hair out of his eyes as they flitted across the grounds, making sure students were heading to their homeroom for first-day-of-school introductions. One group didn't move, though, a group wearing yellow sports jackets on the right side of the courtyard. He walked up to the group and tapped the nearest, a tall purple-haired by, on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, but it's time for class," the teacher attempted to say without his voice shaking, asserting his tentative authority. He was unused to his teaching position, and was hoping for an easy day with kind students. The purple-haired youth turned around with a beautiful smile that seemed to chill the teacher instead of comfort.
"Sumimasen, Sensei. We were finishing up our after-practice morning tennis meeting. We'll be on our way shortly." That smile again. The teacher nodded and excused himself, backing away slowly with a growing nervousness inside him, showing through in his own smile.
As he turned away, sighing in relief, he thought he heard someone say something along the lines of, 'He didn't mean any harm, Buchou. No need to scare him off.'
A cold sweat broke out across the teacher's forehead. The buchou of Rikkaidai? Yukimura Seiichi? The one who led the team to nationals, twice? Of all the regulars of the tennis club to talk to, it had to be him? The teacher increased his speed slightly, trying not to hyperventilate.
Once he was a safe distance away on the other side of the courtyard, he relaxed slightly, going back to his job of ushering lingering students indoors. Most were moving already, except two that caught his eye under a tree.
One stuck out like a sore thumb with her bright red-gold hair and petite figure. She sat with her feet tucked under her, leaning on the tree. A book was perched in one hand while the other was resting on her lap. Next to her lay a boy stretched out using the tree's roots and his arms as a pillow. As the branches of the tree shifted and filtered sunlight through, the teacher thought he saw a flash of free in the boy's dark hair before he was once again in shadow.
The two looked peaceful, if it weren't for t he occasional student running by and shattering the picture-perfect image while on their way to class. The teacher approached the two and cleared his throat to get their attention.
A faint snore was the boy's only reaction as he continued to doze. Expecting the female to be more reasonable, the teacher looked to her hopefully. She was placing a bookmark in her rather thick book, now that he got a good look at it, and tucked the book safely into her bag before looking up. The teacher almost wished she hadn't.
The look in her green eyes was enough to make a mountain run, too cold and expressionless to be human. Her look skewered the teacher, asking who gave him permission to approach them. The teacher hesitated for a second as he almost buckled under her stare before answering.
"Ano, sumimasen, demo . . . you t-two r-r-really sh-should get to class, you kn-kn-know," he half-stuttered, half-choked out. The girl made no move to reply, and simply kept staring at him as if she either did not understand, or did not care.
Right when the teacher was about to leave them be and run, the girl abruptly shook her companion and gathered her belongings before standing. The boy lazily opened his eyes, the color of fresh sunlight but as cold and piercing as the girl's, and slowly stood next to her. At their full height, the teacher vaguely noted that they were barely 150 cm, if that, before feeling the stare of both students now pinned on him.
Feeling as if he were under a microscope, he quickly backed away, sweating again, and ran for the school building.
All he could think of was, Screw getting kids to class on time; what kind of school is this?
Another set of eyes, or more precisely eight sets in the same general area, also watched the scared teacher retreat to the safety of the school. Now, they slid back to the two still standing beneath the tree across the courtyard.
"Sanada, those two are interesting, ne? Who are the, Renji?" One Yukimura Seiichi asked quietly, not wanting the two across the courtyard to hear yet, a mildly curious but still happy look on his face.
"Two new first-years, room 1-2, names: Echizen Ryoma and Echizen Ryoza, also known as the 'Twin Samurai' during their reign over tennis in America the past several years. Both disappeared simultaneously from the circuit four months ago, reason: unknown," spouted off a boy with closed eyes and a bowl-cut, reading from a small green notebook held in his hand, otherwise known as Yanagi Renji.
"Oh? Two famous tennis players at our school," came the sarcastic sneer from a curly-haired tennis player. "They probably couldn't last two minutes against us." Yukimura turned his angelic smile on the younger boy.
"So Kirihara thinks they should join as well? Let's go ask them, then," Yukimura turned and led the team towards the two, Kirihara staring speechlessly after him. One red-head chanced nudging him so he would move, but couldn't resist a small snicker as well.
"He got you again, Kirihara. Come on, don't want to be left behind!" The red-head elbowed him slightly before walking ahead to catch up to his doubles partner, but not before hearing Kirihara mumble something that sounded faintly like, Shut up, Marui.
The two who had not bothered to move from under the tree had now seen the tennis group and watched them come steadily closer with their unwavering gaze. Yukimura was unfazed though. He stopped a respectable distance away before inclining his head slightly, which the two both returned.
"Ohayou, I'm Yukimura Seiichi, caption of the tennis team here. Sanada Genichiro here is my vice-captain, and these are the other regulars: Marui Bunta, Jackal Kuwahara, Niou Masaharu, Yagyuu Hiroshi, Kirihara Akaya, and Yanagi Renji. You two are first-years, correct?"
"Hai, I'm Echizen Ryoza and this is my brother Echizen Ryoma," the girl introduced, gesturing to herself and her brother in turn.
"Excuse me if this is straight forward, but aren't you two the 'Twin Samurai?'" Yukimura went directly to the question, continuing at the slightest of nods from Ryoza. "Would you two be interested in joining our tennis team here at Rikkaidai?"
"No."
For a moment, no one spoke from the Rikkaidai team as they tried to process what she had said.
"What?" was the only response Marui could croak out when he recovered.
"We don't play tennis anymore. Ja ne," Ryoma slowly explained it to them so they would understand in their current state before the two walked off to their class, not giving the team time to form an articulate response.
"That was … unexpected," muttered Renji. "My data is incorrect; I must recalculate."
"Don't rewrite it quite yet, Renji," murmured Yukumura while staring after the Echizens'. "They'll join our team soon enough." With that, Yukimura headed off to class, leaving the others bewildered for a minute, but followed soon after.
Ryoma and Ryoza paused at the door to their homeroom and glanced at each other.
"We can't join the team," sighed Ryoma.
"Right. No matter what we want to do, we can't," murmured Ryoza back.
"We swore to oyaji we'd never take up tennis again, and we need to stick to it." They nodded to each other once before entering the classroom and were engulfed by noise, the door sliding shut behind them.